Fast Facts


Arizona Daily Wildcat
Thursday, January 27, 2005

Things you always never wanted to know

  • Spot, Data's cat on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," was played by six different cats. Data dies at the end of "Star Trek: Nemesis."

  • The red giant star Betelgeuse has a diameter larger than that of the Earth's orbit around the sun.

  • New Jersey has a spoon museum featuring more than 5,
  • 00 spoons from every state and almost every country.

  • Armadillos are used in leprosy research because their body temperature is low enough for them to contract the most virulent form of the disease. They are ideal for many types of medical research because they don't have very strong immune systems.

  • Armadillos like to swim, and they are very good at it. They have a strong dog paddle and can hold their breaths for four to six minutes at a time. Because their heavy shell makes it hard for them to float, they gulp air into their intestines to make them more buoyant.

  • On Wednesday, July 31, 1728, George II, King of England, was presented with an armadillo as a gift. Who'd have thought! This so-called "Indian Monster" was kept happy by a steady supply of "eggs very hard boil'd."

  • According to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, it is illegal to own an armadillo in the state of Maine. The state of Montana classifies them as

    livestock and regulates their import accordingly. Hawaii, of all places, also has strict regulations against the import of armadillos.

  • The phrase "the Boogey Man will get you" comes from the Boogey people, who still inhabit an area of Indonesia. These people still act as pirates today and attack ships that pass. Thus the phrase, "if you don't watch out the Boogey man will get you," spread.

  • The number of the trash compactor in "Star Wars" (20th Century Fox, 1977) is 3263827. That being said, the trash compactor on the Death Star is a ridiculous idea: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2002/01/10deathstar.html.